Reggie Jackson, a two-time World Series most valuable player, has said that there is no room for baseball players who used steroids during their playing days to make an impression, in the hall of fame.

Jackson, who played Major League Baseball from 1967-1987, is one of the best baseball players ever and presently holds the 12th position on the all-time list for maximum home runs with 563 to his credit.

Some of the players who have outplayed him in the rankings had confessed to taking steroids in the past and the list includes big names, namely, Alex Rodriguez, Rafael Palmeiro, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, and Barry Bonds.

From Bloomberg.com:

“It bothers me,” Jackson said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in New York. “A lot of Hall of Famers are very offended by it. I am starting to get affected and I am hoping that those guys that get caught don’t get into the Hall of Fame.”

Jackson, who played for the New York Yankees from 1977 to 1981 and now serves as a special adviser to the team, also said that he misses the old Yankee Stadium. The Yankees moved this season from the ballpark that was home to 26 World Series championship teams, including two of his own, to their new venue across the street.

“I never really saw the new stadium when they were building it,” Jackson said. “I hung out at the old one. I had a difficult time leaving it. The last day I went out with a couple of friends and we walked around the stadium and I sat in the center field block with the fans and others and got a little teary-eyed.”

In an interview with the Bloomberg Television in New York, Jackson said that baseball greats like him who never used steroids to gain an unfair advantage feel offended to be ranked lower than those who cheat the game and fans by taking steroids.

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During the national meeting of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, baseball writers vote down a proposal to form a steroid committee for the development of guidelines in relation to evaluation of players from the era of steroids in Hall of Fame voting.

Players needed just 75 percent of the vote for election. Jim Rice and Rickey Henderson were the only electees for this year.

From Google.com/hostednews:

Current rules ask voters to consider a player’s “record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character, and contributions to the team(s) on which the player played.” Writers who have been BBWAA members for 10 consecutive years are eligible to vote for the Hall of Fame.

Players need 75 percent of the vote for election, and Rickey Henderson and Jim Rice were the only electees this year.

Mark McGwire, the first test of the steroids era, received 118 votes (21.9 percent) this year, down from the 128 votes he got in each of his first two tries.

In other news, the BBWWA chose three finalists for the Hall of Fame’s J.G. Taylor Spink Award for meritorious contributions to baseball writing: Bob Elliott of the Toronto Sun; Joe Giuliotti, a retired writer of the Boston Herald; and Bill Madden of the New York Daily News.

The proposal was turn down 30-25. The name of winner is expected to be announced in December.

The proposal was brought forward by Rick Telander, a Chicago Sun-Times columnist, at a Chicago chapter meeting last month.

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Steroids is still creating havoc in the Major League just as the season is about to start. MLB might be doing its best to silence the issue, but it looks like steroids will be a thorn on its side the whole season round. The media won’t stop talking about it and fans are getting tired of having it on the headlines everyday. Steroids have done a lot of damage to a sport that America loves. Players that high school athletes and kids look up to are now obviously playing for the money and no longer for the sake of the game. They lie, they cheat. Whatever happened to being role models and social responsibility?

From Valencia County News Bulletin:

More recently, Barry Bonds and several others tried to claim that they never “knowingly” took steroids. Yeah, right.

Roger Clemens angrily denied steroid allegations, but his former trainer apparently has DNA evidence that show he is laying.

Even the other guys who have admitted steroid use didn’t exactly take full responsibility.

Jason Giambi apologized for “something,” but he wouldn’t say what it was because he was fearful that the Yankees would void his contract.

Andy Pettite said he only did it “once or twice,” which is very difficult to believe. Still, that was enough to get him a pass from much of the media.

Alex Rodriguez seemed to come clean at first, but his explanation has a ton of holes in it that make it hard to believe that he is being completely honest.

And Jose Canseco did cop to his own steroid use, but only because he was trying to sell a book ratting out other players, so his motives are far from pristine.

Alex Rodriguez may have thought it would do him good in his career if he came forward and admitted he used steroids. However, honesty is not a guarantee of giving him back his tarnished reputation.

Moreover, sportswriters should not compromise their standards in voting for the Hall of Famers. If they decide not to vote for someone because his name is linked to steroids then they shouldn’t bend the rules for others for any reason. Case in point, some sportswriters are not voting for McGwire but will excuse Bonds and Clemens because they are Hall of Famers already. Apparently reputation doesn’t play any role in the selection. It’s all about the numbers now, no wonder the players go to the lengths of taking steroids just to get ahead.

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Fans are singing a different tune as tickets for watching a ballgame soars high. This is now the main concern of fans after a survey was conducted on March 26-29 by the Associated Press-Knowledge Networks. Survey results reflected that other concerns of fans were players getting into steroids and their salaries. As the opening day looms, fans are concerned that the recession has affected their disposable income and they may not be able to afford the cost of the tickets. And it’s not just the tickets. Concession stands and parking lots have increased their rates too. Even souvenirs like t-shirts cost $55 a piece.

From The Associated Press:

That would make for a cheap seat at either of the two new ballparks opening in New York. At the $1.5 billion Yankee Stadium, a ticket in the lower deck between the bases goes for a minimum of $350 and tops out at $2,625.

At the Mets’ Citi Field, it’s $18 just to park.

The average ticket price in the majors was $25.43 last year — up 11.7 percent over the previous season, according to The Team Marketing Report. The 2009 cost hasn’t been determined, but the increases typically outpace the inflation rate.

MLB said two-thirds of the 30 teams lowered either their average ticket price or some level of seats. The Toronto Blue Jays went even further, offering a season ticket in the upper deck for $76 — less than $1 per game for all 81 home dates.

Some of the fans express their disappointment over the fact that players are earning millions despite the recession that the country is going through. Salaries of players like Texeira and Sabathia have signing bonuses of $180 million and $161 million respectively are also becoming so too much. Other fans are still enraged over major league players getting into steroids. Some say that they shouldn’t be recognized or given a chance to the Hall of Fame regardless of their baseball statistics.

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Gary Sheffield’s star has lost its sparkle as Detroit Tigers let him go at the age of 40. He remains unsurpassed as the greatest hitter of all time. But that happened when he was younger. Now the Tigers were willing to pay him a hefty sum of $14 million dollars for him not to play. In short, they were kicking him out of the team. Probably he couldn’t hack it anymore unlike before. There were younger more agile players being recruited and his career could only go so far.

What disappoints Sheffield is that the Tigers decide to dismiss him with 499 home-runs. In two days from a salary of millions he will be reduced to $400,000. Worse, his name was linked to steroids, which could jeopardize his hopes of being a Famer.

From The New York Times:

Even though Sheffield is essentially a designated hitter, the inexpensive price tag will probably lead some team to give him a chance and hope he can produce. Sheffield belted 19 homers in 114 games last season. The Phillies have already contacted Sheffield and could add him.

If Sheffield does not get a call and ends up being forced to retire, he will leave one homer short of the once-hallowed 500-homer mark. Eventually, he will also be an interesting case for the Hall of Fame. In addition to his home runs, Sheffield has 2,615 hits, 1,633 runs batted in and a .292 career average. Based strictly on numbers, Sheffield is a Hall of Famer.

But some voters will surely wonder how much of his production was tied to steroids. He testified before a federal grand jury investigating Balco in December 2003. One year later, Sheffield, who worked out with Barry Bonds, told Sports Illustrated that he unknowingly used a designer steroid on his knee.

Some writers have already made their minds not to vote for Sheffield in the Hall of Fame for having his name linked to steroids, no matter what the explanation would be. Perhaps the best advice for him now is to bow out of baseball gracefully because getting at job at 40 in the majors is quite impossible.

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Did the steroids controversy hurt Alex Rodriguez’s chances to make it at the Hall of Fame? The same question is asked by Ron Santo, top third baseman in the National League for about a decade. He made it to the ballot thrice, one in 1980, another several years after that and the last in 2002. Only three third basemen have made to the Hall of Fame and only Eddie Matthews, a future Famer, exceeded Santo’s career home runs.

Ryne Sandberg, Chicago Cubs’ Hall of Famer, said that more than anyone else it is the deserving players that are affected by the issues on steroids. He couldn’t understand why the candidacy of Santo was overlooked. And he’s not the only one, Tony Oliva and Gil Hodges are in the same boat as Santo.

Billy Williams, Santo’s former teammate, that the writers are more influenced by the numbers that they have outshadowed the star players of the past decade.

From Southtown Star:

”If you have two third basemen here, and you see one guy hit 340-something home runs, and now you see a guy hit 600, 700 home runs, quite naturally you’re going to go to this guy,” Williams said. ”It could happen that somebody looked at this and said, ‘No, this is not a Hall of Fame player.’

”Certainly there’s been a lot of focus on the guys that hit a lot of home runs at record-high pace, and it could have taken away from the (perception of) numbers individuals had in the ’60s.”

Santo said the bottom line for him is, ”I don’t want any excuses. I don’t think like that.”

In the end, Santo accepts the fact that Hall of Fame might not be for him and that he shouldn’t let the Steroids Era affect how lives his life.

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While some Major League Baseball athletes have turned to the use of anabolic steroids in order to reach the top, other great players have shown their love for the game by staying clean. Jeff Kent is the epitome of the latter. Kent has been an advocate of MLB steroid testing throughout his career. When he was giving his retirement speech last week, he even commended the Major League and the players’ union for the developments in the drug testing policy.

Kent has been quoted several times by other supporters of anti-steroid programs such as Bud Selig and Sen. George Mitchell. For Kent, though, the battle against steroids and illegal drugs shouldn’t stop with what the committee now has. The tests could be much better. Kent even suggested adding blood tests to the routine urine samples taken from athletes since more drugs will be detected.

From San Francisco Chronicle:

“Major League Baseball and the union created a drug policy that’s on the right path. Baseball has brought the game to a better level playing field than it ever was,” Kent said. “Whether I personally had anything to do with that . . . I wanted to put this game in a better place, and I hope younger players just don’t give up and say, ‘We’re in a good spot’ and not make more progress.

“The integrity of the game always needs to be in question.”

Kent added the game’s integrity “was jeopardized for so many years, and I’m completely embarrassed about the steroid era.”

He hit more home runs than any other second baseman in history, and they all came in a tainted era.

Kent is proud that he has treated the sports he loved with the respect it deserves. He is a winner in all aspects of the game and he has never cheated. His accomplishments, both in the field and outside, could give him the chance to put his name in the Hall of Fame.

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From the Huffington Post:

It’s being said that Mark McGwire’s failure to be inducted into the Baseball Hall Of Fame on his third go-round is a direct result of the widespread suspicion that he used anabolic steroids when he was breaking records and bashing the cover off the ball in the 1990s. Which may lead you to think that the road to Cooperstown will be rocky when other notable juicers come up for induction over the next few years. But McGwire is a lousy litmus test for the entire steroid era, because his numbers simply aren’t Hall-worthy, performance enhancing drugs or no.

Okay, so McGuire had 583 home runs and his career on-base percentage of .394 is nothing short of amazing.

But he only had a litetime batting average of .263 and only 1,626 hits. C’mon, by Major League Baseball standards that’s weak. And 12 career stolen bases? In 16 seasons?

Sorry Mark. I don’t think so.

Should be interesting when Barry Bonds becomes eligible. They won’t be able to deny him based on his accomplishments. Then we’ll see just how hypocritical these folks are.

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An article in USA Today paints a reclusive yet resolute Mark McGwire.

It was in September 2005 when McGwire made his last public baseball appearance as he returned for the last time, it seems, to Busch Stadium to celebrate the final regular-season games there. It was also that year when a different kind of spotlight, and a different kind of audience, put him under the public glare. It was at the congressional inquiry on the use of steroids in America’s top favorite game.

McGwire neither denied nor admitted his use of steroids. Six months after his congressional testimony, the media had a chance to ask him about the allegations and McGwire remained clammed up about the issue.
“When I left Washington, that’s the last time I’m going to ever talk about it,” McGwire told reporters. “That’s really about it. I’ve moved on. I wish the media would move on from it.

“I’m enjoying life right now. I love the game of baseball. I miss the game of baseball. And I can’t wait for someday when somebody offers me a fantastic job to get back in baseball.”

The rumors of steroid use is keeping the former slugger from being inducted in the Hall of Fame. His career record boasts of 583 home runs, and yet, in a voting conducted by the Baseball Writers Association of America, McGwire has received only 23.5% and 23.6% in the past two years of eligibility. To be inducted for the august Hall, a candidate needs at least 75% of votes.

McGwire, now 44, resides at the “end of a cul-de-sac in a gated community”, according to the same article. And the description invites the question: Will this be the cul-de-sac of McGwire’s legacy?
He refused interview requests and turned down invitations to visit his former team. And yet, there have been reports that he’s been conducting “secret hitting lessons”, an indication that he might have plans to return to his game.

“The perception of Mark is so completely different than the reality,” says Craig Daedelow, a friend of McGwire who often sees and talks to him. “People think he’s out of the game, but they have no idea just how much he’s still in the game.”

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